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The effect of cereal concentrate supplementation on the digestibility of herbage-based diets for lactating dairy cows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

C. M. Arriaga-Jordan  and
W. Holmes
C. M. Arriaga-Jordan
Affiliation:
Wye College (University of London), Ashford, Kent, TN25 5 AH
W. Holmes
Affiliation:
Wye College (University of London), Ashford, Kent, TN25 5 AH
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Summary

Two experiments were conducted, one with seven and the other with eight lactating cows, to measure the effect of supplementation with a cereal concentrate on the digestibility of fresh herbage and to provide equations relating digestibility of herbage to faecal indicators. Cattle were housed with free access to fresh herbage from individual Calan–Broadbent gates for recording feed intake, and faecal output was estimated by the use of chromic oxide. In both experiments a cereal supplement depressed herbage organic matter digestibility by 8 g/kg for each kg of fresh concentrate provided within the range 1–6 kg. The depression was associated with reduced digestibility of cellulose. Herbage digestibility was significantly related to faecal nitrogen and faecal cellulose. Herbage intake was depressed by concentrate supplementation and the response in milk yield to supplementation was small.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 106 , Issue 3 , June 1986 , pp. 581 - 592
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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